ACT English — possessives and sound-alike pronouns

The apostrophe does two different jobs, possession and contraction, and most apostrophe errors on the ACT English section come from mixing them up. "Who's" is a contraction; "whose" is a possessive. "Their" belongs to someone; "they're" means "they are." Possessive pronouns never take an apostrophe at all, which is why "their's" is always wrong. And the possessive itself changes shape depending on whether the noun is singular, a regular plural or an irregular plural.

This material works through both jobs in twelve original sentences. Six questions concern noun possessives: an irregular plural ("children's"), a regular plural owned by two people ("pilots'"), joint possession ("Lewis and Clark's expedition," already correct), a compound noun ("mother-in-law's"), a possessive of time ("three years' experience"), and a pronoun wrongly given an apostrophe ("theirs"). Six concern the sound-alike pronouns: whose and who's in both directions, with one sentence where "who's" is correct; their, there and they're, one each; and your and you're.

Because the automatic checks that guard every bank here strip punctuation before comparing answer choices, the noun-possessive questions describe each repair in words ("place the apostrophe before the final s") rather than printing four versions of the word that differ only in an apostrophe. The judgment is the same as on the test, and it forces you to name the rule. The sound-alike questions use the words themselves, with NO CHANGE as one of the choices.

Each explanation applies a quick test: expand any contraction into two words and see whether the sentence survives; count the owners before placing the apostrophe.

The flashcards give each possessive pattern and each sound-alike pair on one card.

The material offers a multiple-choice quiz and a deck of flashcards. Possessives and sound-alike words fall under Conventions of Standard English, one of the three reporting categories of the English section. Zestly is an independent study tool; this practice material is not produced, affiliated with or endorsed by ACT, Inc., which owns the ACT.

• Form singular, regular plural and irregular plural possessives correctly
• Show joint possession and the possessive of compound nouns
• Use the possessive in expressions of time such as three years' experience
• Write possessive pronouns without apostrophes
• Distinguish whose/who's, their/there/they're and your/you're by expanding contractions

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the reporting categories in ACT's public description of the English section of the enhanced ACT (Conventions of Standard English). Every sentence, essay, option and explanation is original; nothing is reproduced from any ACT publication or released test.